Poll Promises: KL Meena resigns as Rajasthan minister; will Assam minister Pijush Hazarika keep his word?
Guwahati: Pran jaai par vachan na jaai — the famous lines of Ramcharitramanas hold true for veteran politician and senior Rajasthan BJP leader Kirodi Lal Meena who kept his words and resigned from state cabinet and all his posts to keep his promise.
Another politician from Assam — BJP’s Minister Pijush Hazarika — had also promised before the Lok Sabha elections counting that he would ‘quit’ politics if Assam Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi wins from Jorhat Constituency.
Gaurav Gogoi defeated the BJP’s Topon Kumar Gogoi by a huge margin of 1,44,393 votes but Hazarika today doesn’t remember what he had promised if Gaurav wins.
On Thursday, Meena announced his resignation at a public prayer meeting in Jaipur from the state cabinet and all posts.
Meena — who held multiple portfolios, including Agriculture and Rural Development — said last month, before counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha election that he would quit if the BJP lost any of the seven seats in eastern Rajasthan assigned to him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The PM spoke to me and gave me a list of seven seats. I worked hard (and) if the party loses even one seat out of that seven, I will leave the post of minister,” Meena had said hours before counting started.
In total contrast, BJP Assam leader and Minister Pijush Hazarika had claimed that he would quit politics if Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi win from the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat.
“I am certain that Gaurav Gogoi will not win from Jorhat and Tapan Gogoi will defeat him. And if Gaurav Gogoi manages to win the elections then I will quit politics,” Hazarika had told reporters before the Lok Sabha polls.
But not only did Hazarika avoid talking about quitting politics after the announcement of election results, he even did not resign as minister.
Minister Hazarika, known as a close associate of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, is drawing media headlines for making a controversial statement.
In April 2021, Hazarika threatened a journalist from Jagiroad in Assam’s Morigaon district with dire consequences.
The journalist, identified as Nazrul Islam, had filed a complaint against Hazarika at Jagiroad police station, but no case was registered. In an audio clip that had gone viral on social media, Hazarika was heard telling Islam that he would "break his legs and drag him out to the streets."
After submitting his resignation from the Rajasthan cabinet, BJP leader Meena said, "Despite working actively for the last 10-12 years, I couldn't make my party win in those areas where I have some impact.
"The High Command has asked me to come to Delhi tomorrow, I will go there and try to convince them as I have announced that if I won't be able to make my party win, I'll resign, and I have done that. It is my moral duty that I should resign if my party doesn't win. I met the CM as well, but he has rejected my resignation... I have no complaints and no expectations for any post, neither from the CM nor from the organisation.”
Taking to microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Meena posted the famous Ramcharitramanas lines Raghukul reeti sada chali aai, pran jaai par vachan na jaai' to underline his unwavering intent to keep his promise at any cost.
In Dausa, the seat previously held by Meena, this time Congress’ Murari Meena defeated BJP’s Kanhaiya Lal Meena, by 2.37 lakh votes, to reclaim the bastion of party stalwart Rajesh Pilot.